The ones that velcro on might be just what you need. Not sure how they will work on a shifter, tho.

I also forgot to mention a great item if you wear a full face helmet--the Fog City faceshield insert. I have one on my Shoei RFR and I just put one on my RF 900. These things work great. Even riding this morning it kept clear. Midwest Cycle ususally has them, but they're out of stock for at least two weeks. I called Aerostich on Tuesday and it was inside my door when I got home from work yesterday. And only 20 bucks delivered!

I was just talking about heated grip kits- they kind of have to suck a lot of juice to heat all the way through your gloves, don't they? Given that most vespas pop all of their bulbs as soon as one is blown because of the very delicate wattage balance of the circuit, I'd hate to try and drive that thing right off the stator. It'd be an option on battery powered bikes, but i don't know if it'd be able to keep itself charged.

But man does the cold weather lean out the engine! Be *careful* with the revving guys! It was 38 degrees when I left my house this morning, and I accidentally was able to rev to 26 in second on my stock stella - usually I come fairly close to revving out in each gear, which means 10, 20, 30-35 are my usual shift points. But this morning those points were nowhere near revved out. So I'll have to keep a closer eye on the speedo until I'm used to it. Brings new meaning to "lean winter months".

I don't get it? What does that mean?

The ride to work this morning was pretty chilly. The worst part was my nuts were super cold. If you would have tapped them with a ball-peen hammer, I believe they would have shattered!

I bought a heated vest that plugs into the battery and it works awesome, I haven't had a problem with my battery at all either. I don't use it all the time though.

The ride to work this morning was pretty chilly. The worst part was my nuts were super cold. If you would have tapped them with a ball-peen hammer, I believe they would have shattered!

I bought a heated vest that plugs into the battery and it works awesome, I haven't had a problem with my battery at all either. I don't use it all the time though.

Well, there's the possibility that it's sort of a "power of suggestion" thing, but at least in theory it works like this: cold air is substantially denser than warm air. The carb draws the same volume of air year-round, so in the winter you're feeding quite a bit more air (and hence oxygen) into your engine for the same amount of gasoline, hence leaning out the mixture considerably. I don't know to what degree one *really* has to worry about this; but at least in my (admittedly limited) experience, my bike was willing to rev higher and more freely today than normal. If it's not just all in my head, this means it's more likely to overrev and hence overheat the engine, potentially causing trouble and possibly seizure. I do know that normally I'm revved out around 20-22 mph in second, which is about where I shift, and this morning it revved up to 26 before showing signs of being revved out. Hence my comment was that if one, like me, is used to shifting near the top of the range, it may be wise to step back a little as it gets colder and avoid winding it out.

But it's possible this crack pipe in my hands has gone to my head. Opinions?

On the subject of warming, what bike do you ride? If your vest isn't causing trouble for your bike and it's similar to my stella, then I probably can get away with the heated grips if I connect them directly to the battery and only use them when I need them...

[quote="Tom Lindsay"]Well, there's the possibility that it's sort of a "power of suggestion" thing, but at least in theory it works like this: cold air is substantially denser than warm air. The carb draws the same volume of air year-round, so in the winter you're feeding quite a bit more air (and hence oxygen) into your engine for the same amount of gasoline, hence leaning out the mixture considerably. I don't know to what degree one *really* has to worry about this; but at least in my (admittedly limited) experience, my bike was willing to rev higher and more freely today than normal. If it's not just all in my head, this means it's more likely to overrev and hence overheat the engine, potentially causing trouble and possibly seizure. I do know that normally I'm revved out around 20-22 mph in second, which is about where I shift, and this morning it revved up to 26 before showing signs of being revved out. Hence my comment was that if one, like me, is used to shifting near the top of the range, it may be wise to step back a little as it gets colder and avoid winding it out.

I didn't know that. Although, it makes me more concerned about how I ride in general. I'm always riding on the higher spectum of rpms because I like the torque. I hope I'm not fucking it up. For example I'm generally going about 35-40 in third. Especially when I'm leaning into a turn going 30 I like to have it in second, when rolling out of the turn? Is that bad?

Tom Lindsay wrote:

On the subject of warming, what bike do you ride? If your vest isn't causing trouble for your bike and it's similar to my stella, then I probably can get away with the heated grips if I connect them directly to the battery and only use them when I need them...

I have a Stella too (red one). The vest I have draws 33 watts, so if I've done my homework properly I'm pushing it, but if I don't have it on all the time I should be okay. Maybe?

For a stock bike, just wind the thing out. If you can drop it into second and not fly over the handlebars, you're not going to have to worry about it.

If you know how to bolt on performance parts but you don't know how to tune a carb (or the rest of the engine to match the parts) then all bets are off. But for a stock bike, ride it like you borrowed it. Or it has a warranty, I guess.

(disclaimer: I've been riding my bikes for a couple years, bone stock, and I really like to make the gears scream before I hit the next gear. No siezes or major engine damage yet. Have blown a clutch basket while excessively bumpstarting.)

For a stock bike, just wind the thing out. If you can drop it into second and not fly over the handlebars, you're not going to have to worry about it.

If you know how to bolt on performance parts but you don't know how to tune a carb (or the rest of the engine to match the parts) then all bets are off. But for a stock bike, ride it like you borrowed it. Or it has a warranty, I guess.

(disclaimer: I've been riding my bikes for a couple years, bone stock, and I really like to make the gears scream before I hit the next gear. No siezes or major engine damage yet. Have blown a clutch basket while excessively bumpstarting.)

bump starting = pushstarting = using the rear tire to turn the engine over instead of the kickstart lever.

The rather undignified process (I never see Derrick having to do this) is usually accomplished by running the bike up to speed with the clutch in, and then hopping on and dumping the clutch. You end up with a lower end of the engine (tire, driveshaft) that's in motion, the top end of the engine (piston/christmas tree) that's not in motion, and then the clutch takes the entire stress of newton's first as the twain meet.

(Note: The hopping on the bike part before engaging the gears is highly recommended. If you just run alongside the bike and try to get it to chug to life, you can end up with an ugly situation when the bike suddenly comes alive and starts to pull away from you. Given the bikes motion relative to your hand, there's a tendency to end up giving the bike MORE gas, as the throttle extends your arms. This can result in laughable results. (For the other people watching.)

This shouldn't have to apply to bikes that have electric start and a charged battery, or bikes in generally healthy shape to begin with.

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And obTopic:
I just had to zip the fleece liner into my jacket yesterday. It was cold.
I'm going to have to wear my scarf the next time I rides, because it's very cold where the air rushes up into the helmet. (Scarf around the neck before the jacket goes on, so the tails get tucked securely inside.)

Although now in warm sunny Austin, TX, I have done my fair share of cold weather commuting in Minneapolis. My two strongest recommendations are full face helmet (with scarf) and chopper mitts. Don't skimp on the mitts. Get thick ass wool liners and use elk skin outers if you can find them (they keep out the water better that deer skin and dry faster). Braking and shifting may be slightly inhibited at first with the mitts, but you do adjust to the more limited movement. I have ridden numerous days in the 10s and stayed reasonably warm for 10 + miles.

On a related note, I went to my first Austin version of the Sunday ride. I ran into a guy that claims he won the cold weather challenge for Texas. He even said he did it at a respectable 20s temp. He was impressed that my coldest day of 12 wouldn't even get on the charts for MN. Great scooter scene down here. Several active clubs and an all-club ride every Sunday. The best part is rallies in November... ). It is like 92 right now. Okay I will shut up now.

I wear a full-face helmet. I just bought a Joe Rocket Ballistic 4.0 jacket on Ebay for $105, including shipping. The jacket has a liner and is almost too warm with the liner out in the summer, but I'm toasty now. I could use a scarf for my bare neck.

I'm still wearing my rubberized yellow tomcat farmer gloves. The key here is "rubberized," In any other chore glove my hands would be freezing.

I have a pair of summer cycling gloves, they're comfortable down to about 50 degrees. If it gets much colder than this morning I'm going to have to go with ski gloves.

I have a set of overalls, but I don't put them on often. So far the cold is just reminding me to keep my knees tucked in behind the legshield.

If you have a "stock" stella set up, I don't think you can over rev it. Maybe if you roud 1st for a long ways, but other than that you really can't hurt it. Now with bikes that are tuned, you probalby need to go up a point or two in the cool fall air to keep her out of a lean situation.

As for the cold, you need layers. I round in 37 degree F weather a couple of weekends ago of about 3 hours. I really never got cold at all. I had on top, thermal undies, t-shirt, sweater, skarf, face mask and my 1/2 helmet and googles and helmet neck wrap-around thingie. Bottom half, thermal undies, jeans, and some ass kicker boots.